I offended you. I can imagine it's a big goddamned burden to have someone want to get to know you."
"Hal - "
He pushed her aside easily. "You say that one more time and I'm going to put a fist through the wall."
He strode outside, walking into the woods that ran down the left edge of her property.
On impulse, Mary shoved her feet into a pair of running shoes, grabbed a jacket, and shot through the slider. She ran across the lawn, calling out for him. When she got to the forest's edge, she paused.
There were no branches snapping, no twigs cracking, no sounds of a big man walking. But he'd gone in this direction. Hadn't he?
"Hal?" she called out.
It was a long while before she turned and went back inside.
Chapter Fifteen
"You did well tonight, Mr. O."
O stepped out of the shed behind the cabin, thinking Mr. X's approval was such bullshit. He kept the irritation to himself, though. He was barely a day out of the Omega's clutches and not really in the mood to get all worked up.
"But the male didn't tell us anything," he muttered.
"That's because he didn't know anything."
O paused. In the dim dawn, Mr. X's white face glowed like a night-light.
"Excuse me, sensei?"
"I worked him over myself before you got here. I had to be sure I could depend on you, but didn't want to waste an opportunity in the event you were no longer solid."
Which explained the male's condition. O had assumed the vampire had just fought hard when he'd been abducted.
Wasted time, wasted effort, O thought, getting out his car keys.
"You got any more tests for me?" You prick.
"Not right now." Mr. X checked his watch. "Your new squadron should be here soon, so put those keys away. Let's go inside."
O's revulsion at being anywhere near the cabin made him lose feeling in his feet. The damn things went totally numb on him.
But he smiled. "Lead on, sensei."
When they were indoors, he went directly to the bedroom and propped himself against the doorjamb. Even though his lungs had turned into cotton balls, he kept his cool. If he'd avoided the space, Mr. X would have thought of a reason to send him into it. The bastard knew that poking fresh wounds was the only way to determine the extent of the healing or the festering.
While slayers filed into the cabin, O took stock of them. He didn't recognize a single one, but then the longer a member was in the Society, the more anonymous he became. With hair, skin, and eye colors fading to pale, eventually a lesser just looked like a lesser.
As the other men checked him out, they glared at his dark hair. In the Society new recruits were at the bottom of the ladder, and it was unusual for one to be included in a group of seasoned men. Yeah, well, fuck that. O met each of them in the eye, making it clear that if they wanted to take him on he was more than happy to return the goddamned favor.
Faced with the possibility of physical confrontation, he came alive. It was like waking up after a good night's sleep, and he relished the surges of aggression, the good old need to dominate. It assured him that he was as he had always been. That the Omega hadn't taken his core away, after all.
The meeting didn't last long, and it was standard stuff. Introductions. A reminder that every morning, each one of them had to check in via e-mail. There was also a refreshment of the persuasion strategy and some quotas for capture and killing.
When it was over, O was the first to head for the door. Mr. X stepped in front of him.
"You will stay."
Those pale eyes held on to his, watching, waiting to see a flash of fear.
O nodded once and spread his stance. "Sure, sensei. Whatever you like."
From over Mr. X's shoulder, O watched the others head out in the manner of strangers. No talking, eyes straight ahead, bodies not touching even casually. Clearly none of them knew one another, so they must have been called in from different districts. Which meant Mr. X was reaching down into the ranks.
As the door closed behind the last man, O's skin tingled with panic, but he held himself rock still.
Mr. X looked him up and down. Then walked over to the laptop on the kitchen table and fired the thing up. Almost as an afterthought, he said, "I'm putting